Page 10 of Heart of Gold
Grayson’s shirt.
I glance down at the red fabric, and back to him. “Yeah my old school. The bobcats.”
He laughs, “Our mascot was the panthers. Who do you think would’ve won?”
“What?” I ask, “Between our old football team and yours?”
“No,” he smiles, “I already know the answer to that. I mean between a bobcat and a panther.”
I can’t help but giggle, like what the hell kind of question is that?
“I guess a panther. Why don’t you ask Siri?”
He laces his fingers with mine, the gesture feeling way more intimate than it should. “I wanted to ask you.”
I struggle to find any words, so he speaks. “A panther would definitely win.”
The way he says it makes him sound so cocky, “Why do you think that?”
He takes his other hand, which is massive compared to mine, and places it on my thigh. “A panther is bigger.”
I stare down at his hand, then tilt my eyes to his, “Is this about a panther and a bobcat, or me and you?”
He moves his hand from my thigh and brushes his thumb against my bottom lip. “If I was a panther and you were a bobcat, I wouldn’t fight you. I’d fight to protect you.”
I grin, “I bet you say that to your entire roster, right?”
His smile falls, and he looks confused, “My roster?”
“Yeah,” I roll my eyes, “You know all the girls you’ve slept with.”
He pulls his hand away from mine, like I’ve offended him somehow, and I don’t like the way it feels.
“I don’t have a roster,” he says. “Do you always do this?”
I feel my heartbeat in my throat, afraid of what he might say.
“Try and judge someone straight away so you don’t have to actually get to know them?”
I stare at him, memorizing his features and realize he’s right, I do that. I do it because I thought I knew Grayson.
Turns out, I didn’t.
chapter five
Gavin
Daisy fell asleep in my arms pretty quickly, the liquor eventually catching up to her. I laid awake and stared at her for a long time. I watched the way her chest would rise and fall, and wondered who number 4 was on the back of her shirt. Her boyfriend? Her brother? I traced the outline of the number on her back, over and over. It was killing me that I didn’t know. That I probably would never know.
I had a sinking feeling that whoever it was probably did have a roster. Most of the guys on my high school team last year would brag about how many girls they’d fuck, even try to get their roster number to match their jersey number, like it was some sort of game. That’s not to say I’m a virgin or anything, I just don’t have sex for sport.
The only game I played was football and the occasional monopoly. Which usually resulted in Levi flipping over the coffee table and us not speaking for days at a time.
I can feel her stirring against my chest, but before she wakes and says a word, a very abrupt knock on the door causes her tojerk awake. Her eyes are wide as she stares at me, then a voice on the other side.
“Sis, open up! Let’s go get some breakfast.”
She quickly sits up, and whispers to me. “That’s my sister. You have to hide.”
